Every student’s dream

Flood fundraiser allows students to hit teachers in faces with pies

Jessica Ward, sponsor of student council, at right, is handed napkins after getting a pie in the face from Jakob Roth, not pictured. Ward is one of the Saratoga School teachers who “won” the opportunity to be struck with a dessert as the result of students voting with money for their lucky favorites on the faculty.

Ever since homework was invented, it’s been pretty much every kid’s dream to throw a pie in his teacher’s face.

For Jakob Roth, a sixth-grader at Saratoga Elementary School, that dream became a reality Friday afternoon.

Jessica Ward, student council sponsor and the teacher in question, wearing a black garbage bag and goggles, stood at the ready.

Roth smiled as the stands of one of the school’s gyms erupted in wild cheers, and then smooshed the whipped-cream pie into Ward’s face.

“It was fun,” Roth said afterward. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“It was a rush.”

All this pie business -- it wasn’t just some sort of cinematic retribution for too much homework. It was a fundraiser for families displaced by last month’s flood.

According to Ward, members of student council had long wanted to have a pie-throwing event. So when they needed to find a way to raise money for flood victims, it seemed a good fit.

All week long, kids from kindergarten to eighth grade put money in a bucket based on which teacher they most wanted to see pied.

The ten teachers with the most money “won.”

A raffle was also held to determine which students would be getting to do the pie-ing.